By Tony Snow
Floyd is an Elder and member of the Stoney Nakoda First Nation at Morley, Alberta.
Recently Floyd and his family experienced food security distress during the COVID-19 pandemic because mass buying left many store shelves empty and made several people in the Indigenous community, who are already food insecure, worry about their next meal.
The COVID-19 pandemic is nothing new to Indigenous people. Previous generations of people on reserve and in communities have suffered through times of famine, epidemics, starvation and hardship. This has been experienced by Indigenous people on reserve and our Métis relatives who lived in settlements and on the fringes of society. In our history, we have suffered through incurable epidemics; we have suffered through an inability to meet basic needs because of systemic poverty and impoverishment in remote communities; we have watched loved ones die from plagues of suicides and opioid addiction for decades.
On the Stoney reserve, many still struggle for basic needs to feed families that contend with housing shortages, overcrowding, addictions, mental health crises, domestic violence and impacts from intergenerational trauma and lateral violence.
As a church, The United Church of Canada dedicated itself to find a way to address these challenges through the adoption of the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action (2015) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (2016). In order to live into these commitments and build good relationships with Indigenous communities, the church has reached out to the community at Morley, which holds the historic first in southern Alberta with the Methodist mission at Morley, which later became part of the United Church in 1925. The need to address and confront the social need and spiritual hurt that resulted from that relationship is an ongoing concern for the people of the newly formed Chinook Winds Region (Central and Southern Alberta) for the United Church of Canada.
In this work, as Regional Coordinator for Indigenous Right Relations, I have been working to foster better relations that will guide our advocacy with intentionality and understanding.
This month, as the pandemic fear too hold in Morley, Alberta, my sister Gloria Snow and fellow student in ministry, was taking part in outreach by taking Elders shopping to shore up their supplies during the pandemic, and help them maintain a level of food security. Gloria and the Elder found the shelves bare and returned home empty-handed and this taught them the hard truth about the world we live in: We must do what we can to assist others if we want to keep and maintain the free and caring society we live in.
Gloria went to work, enlisting her relationships with Ralph Connor United Church in Canmore, who collect donations and cleaning supplies for the Elders. This was taken out to help those in need.
This was soon followed with a donation from St. Andrews United Church in Cochrane, and a few of us were able to meet with Rev. Ray Goodship to receive and distribute donations in a manner that observed the newly established rules of social distancing and safety as we learned more about the disease. It was also a good way to check in with Elders, many of whom do not have phone service or a reliable way of communicating with the outside world.
Together we encouraged Hillhurst United Church to jump on board with a $500.00 donation and the McDougall United Church was able to collect cans of food and over $1000.00 to go toward foodstuffs for the Elders.
In this time of crisis, where we see so many examples of social media on people hoarding and taking advantage of the misfortune of others, it was good to see United Churches step up and live out their Reconciliation commitments with a heartfelt action that helped the elderly and needy on reserve. Milk and formula are in short supply for impoverished mothers, and so some of the hampers and supplies went to help those mothers in need. Still, others who had previously lost limbs to disease and were unable to get around to get supplies were helped by these gestures.
As the community slowly became aware of the epidemic in their midst, these actions helped provide a measure of support until the social safety net system could get organized and begin deploying resources from a joint First Nation and Federal government program.
When we think about acts of Reconciliation it is important to remember that high unemployment and racism are still rampant and act as a barrier for Indigenous people to fully participate in Canadian society. It is also important to remember that in our recent history, a loving hand of hope was not always forthcoming from mainstream society. A century ago when the epidemic of smallpox hit many reserves, few lifted a hand to help. During the residential school abuses and countless cries, many were ignored. As generations of Indigenous women went missing or were murdered, it has taken many years to affirm the stories and recognize the crisis, and it is taking longer to take concrete action. And as the opioid crisis grew and took hold on reserve fully 10 years before the larger Canadian society, the help and the hope were missing.
So today, as we reach out to try to help, let us remember that it takes many people to build the village we want.
One of the basic tenets in Stoney culture is caring for others by sharing what you have. When Gloria gathered her donations from the churches she also went to a family nephew and his friends (who were traditional hunters) to see if they could provide wild meat for the Elders. After prayers led to a successful hunt, the meat was distributed to the elderly, the infirm and the destitute. This echoes with our traditional cultural practice of sharing and providing for one another.
Growing up, I remember my father, the late Dr Rev. John Snow, would take time out during the winter months in February and March to deliver food hampers to Elders and those without food. He did so without fanfare, without being told, without asking for anything in return, because that was how he was raised in the traditional leadership role of our hereditary line.
Today, we must work together to pool our resources and our efforts in order to meet the needs of our community and our neighbours. There has been a lot of talk around reconciliation and right relations over the past 20 years, but very little in terms of tangible evidence of how we have changed in how we treat one another. One has only to look at the blockades around the country and the presence of law enforcement rather than negotiators or industry representatives, to see that we have not really changed when it comes to confrontation. We have not learned how to do better.
And so it is hopeful that as I work in the Chinook Winds Region as the Regional Coordinator for Indigenous Right Relations efforts, that we can begin to see a need and work quickly to address it.
Through donations from Hillhurst United Church, Ralph Connor United Church, McDougall United Church and St. Andrews United Church in Cochrane, we were able to provide food hampers to elders, giving them needed supplies and hope.
We will continue our support of Indigenous ministry in Region 3 by taking hampers to Maskwacis as soon as we are able. If people would like to donate or coordinate care packages with the local Indigenous community they can contact me by email.
It is important to remember that during this time of uncertainty and fearfulness we remember those among us in need. And we should do everything we can to take the new lessons of our current time to choose to live in a new way, and not repeat the wrongs of the past by ignoring, ostracizing or condemning others whose difference may be presented as a justification for intolerant behaviour. It is only by challenging those attitudes that we can learn to rise above them and build resiliency for the next generation.

Tony Snow, Regional Coordinator for Indigenous Right Relations, Chinook Winds Region, The United Church of Canada